Notes & Comments

The naughty graffiti at Pompeii have entertained archaeologists and students of the classical world at least since the city’s rediscovery in the eighteenth century. Before that, when it was a thriving watering hole for rich Romans, the lewd drawings and inscriptions presumably entertained the denizens of that cosmopolitan outpost as they went about their daily lives.

It’s a good thing they didn’t try any of that randy badinage at a modern American liberal arts college. At those citadels of moral sensitivity, they would be likely to find themselves—as a still-unknown perpetrator of graffitiat Williams College finds himself—hounded as a social pariah and the object of an article in TheHuffing-puffington Post titled “Violent Hate S ...

The Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic MendacityOn May 5, 2014, The New Criterion and PJ Media presented the second Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity. The award is given to highlight egregious examples of dishonest reporting. Also awarded this year was the Rather, a new award for lifetime achievement in mendacious journalism.
The Duranty Prize is named after Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow corresponded in the 1920s and 1930s who whitewashed Joseph Stalin’s forced starvation of the Ukrainians (the Holodomor) and many other aspects of Soviet oppression. Duranty was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his efforts. It has never been revoked.
Audio copyright Ed Driscoll, www.eddriscoll.com.

Introduction to The Kennedy PhenomenonRoger Kimball introduces The Kennedy Phenomenon, a conference presented by The New Criterion on Tuesday, November 19.

The Kennedy Phenomenon: "Watching the Kennedy Train-Wreck"Roger Kimball reads Peter Collier’s paper on oft-overlooked unsavory details of the Kennedys' lives. Much of the paper is drawn from Collier’s book, coauthored with David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama.